Birth story - Ali and baby Martha

My waters broke on the Thursday but my contractions didn’t start. After being assessed at hospital on the Friday morning they wanted to keep me in and start the induction process which I really didn’t want. I negotiated for more time and I was booked in to be induced at 8am on the Saturday.

At 11.30pm Friday night I felt my first contractions and went to bed with the Freya app as my birth partner. I laboured all night until 7am when we whacked on the tens machine and my husband drove me to the hospital in agony (we later discovered she was back-to-back). I couldn’t believe it when they said I was 9cm!

I continued to use my tens, the PBC breathing techniques and some gas and air and our long-wished-for little Martha Iris Primrose came into the world at 11.52am.

It was not my planned water birth, I had no time (or inclination) to put out my battery tealights and the room I gave birth in was a small assessment room - but it was a beautiful birth and I wouldn’t change anything about it.

Getting through the majority of my labour at home using the app and breathing meant that my husband could be with me almost as soon as we arrived at the hospital - although I hadn’t planned to be quite so far along!